Buell S2 Thunderbolt 1995

In late 1994 Buell Motorcycles unveiled their highly-anticipated S2 Thunderbolt to the world with a promise that it could become the most exciting, attention-grabbing, best-handling and possibly the most livable sportbike ever produced in the U.S. A pretty dramatic claim from a company that had never produced more than 120 expensive, and somewhat outlandish-appearing sportbikes in any given year since Erik Buell founded the company in the mid-eighties. It was the much-needed influx of capital that Harley-Davidson provided when they acquired a 49 percent share of Buell in 1993 that gave Buell the confidence to make such claims. Indeed, H-D president Jeff Bleustein was quoted as saying: “We’re not interested in selling a few hundred Buells a year — we want to sell thousands.

Needless to say, the S2 was an instant sales success. It was also one of the first ever test bikes to reside in the Motorcycle Online garage. We raved over the bike in our feature test of the Thunderbolt back in 1995: “This bike grunts out of corners with authority, its burly V-twin music straightening out the kinks in your favorite back road… Packed with tire-shredding torque and a well-sorted chassis, this bike screams. It’s a good attempt at fusing together opposite ends of the motorcycling spectrum.” And we declared we would never give it back. Riding the S2 is a grin-inducing experience that grows on you. It has an in-your-face persona that demands the rider’s attention. But we quickly found out horsepower isn’t a strong point with the S2’s
Sportster-based engine.